£173m PartyGaming plays down US threat

PARTYGAMING, the world's biggest online gambling group, today reported a near-50% rise in revenues to $319m (£173m) as the new boss insisted that the US crackdown that led to the arrest of the head of Beton-Sports this week was not aimed at all online betting firms.

Mitch Garber, who joined in April and was unveiling PartyGaming's second-quarter figures, said: 'I think the US authorities have been consistent.

'They are looking at US companies or US subsidiaries who are taking bets on US sporting events. We are not in that business and therefore there is not a comparison to be made between Beton-Sports and PartyGaming.'

Garber, who said he had 'no imminent plans to travel to the US' himself, also reported that 232,446 new poker players signed up during the quarter of which 46% were from outside the US.

Meanwhile, BetonSports chief executive-David Carruthers, who was arrested and detained in Texas on charges of fraud and racketeering while en route to the company's head office in Costa Rica, is due in court in Fort Worth today.

His lawyer, Tim Evans, said he did not expect Carruthers to be granted bail terms that would allow him to return to the UK.

In a sign of how nervous online gambling bosses are about the prospect of further action by the US authorities, an international gaming conference due to be held in Las Vegas next week has been cancelled.

Organiser Calvin Ayre, chief executive of Costa Rican-based internet betting firm Bodog.com, said: 'The US government has made it clear that anybody that's involved in internet online gambling is not welcome in the US.'